the boys next door
by cutesillypenguin
Summary: Piper and Jason are inseparable friends, though she can't deny a small crush on Jason's older brother, Mark. But just as Piper decides to prove to Mark she's girlfriend material, she realizes that her role as girl friend to Jason may be even more important. And by trying so hard for the perfect summer romance, she may be going way overboard. JasonXPiper
1. Chapter 1

This story is the Jason and piper version on Jennifer Echols's book, the boys next door!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of this, Rick Riordian and Jennifer Echols do...

Enjoy!

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Piper's P.O.V

Mark smiled down at me, his dirty blond hair glinting golden in the sunlight. He shouted over the sound of the boat motor and wind, " Piper, when we're old enough, I want you to be my girlfriend." He didn't even care the other boys heard him.

I whispered, "When will we be old enough?"

His blue eyes, lighter than the bright blue sky behind him, seamed to glow in his tan face. He answered me, smiling. At least I thought he answered me. His lips moved. So I yelled, "I didn't hear you. What'd you say?" He spoke to me again. I still couldn't hear him, though the wind hadn't gotten any louder. Maybe he was just mouthing words, pretending to say something sweet I couldn't catch. Boys were like that. He'd just been teasing me all along-

"You ass!" I sat straight up in my sweat-soaked bed, wiping away the strands of my hair stuck to my wet face. Then I realized what I'd said out loud. "Sorry, mom," I told her photo on my bedside table. But maybe she hadn't heard me over my alarm clock blaring Christina Aguilera, "Ain't No Other Man."

Or maybe she'd understand. I'd just had a close encounter with Mark! Even if it was only in my dreams.

Usually I don't remember my dreams. Whenever my brother, Leo, repair boy was home from college, he told dad and me at breakfast what he dreamed about the night before. Lindsay Lohan kicking his butt on the sidewalk after he tried to take her picture (pure fantasy). Amanda Bynes dressed as the highway patrol, pulling him over to give him a traffic ticket. I was jealous. I didn't want to dream about Lindsay Lohan or getting my butt kicked. However, if I was spending the night with Patrick Dempsey and I didn't even know it, I was missing out on every worthy third of my life. I had once googled "dreaming" and found out that some people don't remember their dreams if their bodies are used to getting up at the same hour every morning and have plenty of thine to complete the dream cycle.

So why'd I remember my dream this morning? It was the first day of summer vacation, that's why. To start my work at the marina, I'd set my clock thirty minutes earlier than during the school year. Lo and behold, here was my dream. About Mark: Check. Blowing me off as usual: Noooooo! That might happen in my dreams, but it wasn't going to happen in real life. Not again. Mark would be mine, starting today. I gave mom on my broadside table an ok sign- the wake boarding signal for ready to go- before rolling out of bed.

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So, whadda ya think?

Like it? Hate it? REVIEW!

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If you have any suggestions COMMENT/REVIEW!

~Cutesillypenguin (Author)


	2. Chapter 2 part 1

Ok, so I was going to post two days ago but fanfiction wasn't cooperating with me so I'm doing it now since i was really busy... so some of the words on this may be not be totally true... SO ENJOY!

P.S I'm probably gonna update later today!

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Hai Peoples!

So… I GOT MY FIRST FRICKIN FOLOWER LAST NIGHT (ON THIS STORY OF COURSE)

So, special thanks to you, you made my day!

But anyways, I was gonna update last night and I had the next chapter all all ready and typed up and I was about to save my word document when my computer all of a sudden died on me and it didn't save L

Yea… so I got really fed up and decided to update today instead and hopefully my computer won't die on me today, at least before I save.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of this, Rick and Jennifer do…

ENJOY!

(and don't forget to review..)

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Piper's P.O.V

When I got downstairs, my dad and brother didn't suspect a thing… They didn't even notice what I was wearing. Our conversation at breakfast was the same one we'd had every summer morning since Leo was eight and I was five.

Dad to Leo: "You remember to take care of your sister today."

Leo, between bites of egg, "Roger that"

Dad to me: "And you watch out around the boys next door."

Me: (eye roll)

Leo: "Hey dad, I had this rocking dream about Anne Hathaway!"

After breakfast, Leo and I trotted across our yard and into the Grace's yard to the complex of showrooms, warehouses, and docks and Grace's Marina. The morning air was already thick with the heat and humidity and the smell of cut grass that would last the entire Alabama summer. I didn't mind. I liked the heat. And I quivered in my flip flops at the prospect of another whole summer with Mark. I'd been going through withdrawal.

In the past years, any one of the three Grace boys, including Mark, might have shown up at my house at any time to throw the football or play video games with my brother. Thy might let me play too if they felt sorry for me, or if their mom guilted them into it. And my brother might go to their house at any time. But I couldn't go to their house. If I'd walked in, they would have stopped what they were doing, looked up, and wondered what I was doing there. They were my brother's friends, not mine.

Well, Jason was my friend. He was probably more my friend than my brother's. Even though we were the same age, I didn't have any classes with him at school, so you'd think he'd walk a hundred yards over to my house for a visit every once in a while. But he didn't. And if I'd gone to visit him, it would have been obvious I was looking for Mark out of the corner of my eye the whole time.

For the past nine months, with Leo off at college, my last tie to Mark has been severed. He was two years older than me, so I didn't have any classes with him, either. I wasn't even in the same wing of the high school as him. I saw him once at a football game and once in front of the movie theater when I'd ridden around with Calypso for a few minutes after a tennis match. But I never approached him. He was always flirting with Drew or Rachel or whatever glamorous girl he was with at the moment. I was too young for him, and he never even thought of hooking up with me. On the very rare occasion when he took the garbage to the road at the same time I walked to the mailbox, he gave me the usual beaming smile and a big hug and acted like I was his best friend ever… for thirty seconds.

It had been a long winter. Finally we were back to summer. The Graces always needed extra help at the marina during the busy season from Memorial day to Labor day. Just like last year, I had a job there- and an excuse to make Mark my captive audience. I sped up my trek across the pine needles between the trees and found myself in a footrace against Leo. It was totally unfair because I was carrying a backpack and he was wearing running shoes. But I beat him to the warehouse by half a length anyway.

The Grace boys had gotten there before us and claimed the food jobs, so I wouldn't have a chance to work side by side with Mark. Will, the oldest of the grace boys, was helping the full-time workers take the boats out of the storage. He wanted my brother to work with him so they could catch up on their lives at two different colleges. Mark and Jason were already gone, delivering the boats to the customers up and down the lake for Memorial Day weekend. Mark wasn't around to see my outfit. I was so desperate to get going to this "new me" thing, I would have settled for a double take from Jason or Will.

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Eeh, too lazy to finish the rest of this chapter… so, TO BE CONTINUED!

BTW: I update at least once every other day, but since I'm on break right now I can update more… so don't get mad at me if I don't update every single day…

REMEMBER TO REVIEW!

I am open to all suggestions and ideas!

(::) (::) (::) (::) – virtual cookies to all my readers!

And thanks again to my first follower!

WAIT…. YAY! I GOT ANOTHER FOLLOWER!

THANKS FOR MY FIRST TWO FOLLOWERS!

You guys made my day super awesome… THANKS A MILLION!

Catch a later… probably in an hour or so when I update again…

~CUTESILLYPEGUIN


	3. Chapter 2 part 2

OMGness, I'm so sorry for not updating in like forever… I have been super busy with volleyball, homework etc.

ANYWAYS…

Since I haven't updated in forever, I promise to make the longest chapter LIKE EVER… that I have ever written… so don't get your hopes up…

BUT I WILL TRY MY BEST!

By the way… this is chapter 2 part 2 (just so you know…)

Disclaimer: I do not own any of this, Rick and Jennifer do…

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Piper's P.O.V (as usual)

All I got on the outfit was Mrs. Grace. Come to think of it, she was a good person to run the outfit by. She wore stylish clothes, as far as I could tell. Her blond pinstriped hair was cut to flip up in the back. She looked exactly like you'd want your mom to look so she wouldn't embarrass you in public. I found her in the office and hopped onto a stool behind her. Looking over her shoulder as she typed on the computer, I asked, "Notice anything different?"

She tucked her pinstriped hair behind her ear and squinted at the screen. "I'm using the wrong font?"

"Notice anything different about my upper chest?"

Now that got her attention. She whirled around in her chair and peered at my upper chest.

"You got plastic surgery?"

"No! I'm showing more skin up there," I said proudly, moving my palm in front of my chest like presenting them on a TV commercial. All this can be yours! Or, rather, your son's.

My usual summer uniform was the outgrown clothes Jason had given to me over the years: Jeans, which I cut off into shorts and wore with a wider belt to hold up the waist, and t-shirts from his football team. Under that, for wakeboarding in the afternoon, I used to wear a one piece sports bathing suit with full coverage that reached all the way up to my neck. Today, to keep up with my "new me" look I wore a cute little bikini. Over that, I still wore Jason's cut off jeans. Amazingly, they looked pretty good on me, and then I traded the football t-shirt for a pink tank that ended above my belly button and hugged my figure. I even had a little cleavage. I was so proud. Mark was going to love it.

Mrs. Grace stared at my chest perplexed. Finally she said, "Oh, I get it. You're trying to look hot."

"Thank you!" Mission accomplished.

"Here's a hint. Close your legs."

I snapped my thighs together on the stool. People always scolded me for sitting like a boy. Then I slid off the stool and stomped to the door in a huff. "Where do you want me?"

She'd turned back to the computer. "You've got gas duty."

Oh, goody. I headed out the office door, toward the front dock to man the gas pumps. This meant at some point during the day, one of the boys would look around the marina office and ask, "Who has gas?" and another boy would answer, "Piper has gas." If I were really lucky, Mark would be in on the joke.

The office door squeaked open behind me. "Piper," Mrs. Grace called. "Did you want to talk?"

Noooooo. Nothing like that. I'd only font into her office and tried to start a conversation. Mrs. Grace had three sons. She didn't know how to talk to a girl. My mother had died in a boating accident alone on the lake when I was four. I didn't know how to talk to a woman. Any convo between Mrs. Vader and me was doomed from the start.

"No, why?" I asked without turning around. I'd been galloping down the wooden steps, but now I stepped very carefully, looking down, as if I needed to examine every footfall so I wouldn't trip.

"Watch out around the boys," she warned me.

I raised my hand and wiggled my fingers, toodle-dee-doo, dismissing her. Those boys were harmless. Those boys had better watch out for me.

Really, aside from the spectator of the boys discussing my intestinal problems, I enjoyed having gas duty. I got to sit on the dock with my feet in the water and watch the kingfishers and the herons glide low over the surface. Later, I'd swim on the side of the dock upriver form the gasoline. Not now, before Mark saw me for the first time that summer. I would be in and out of the lake and windy boats all day, and my hair would look like hell. That was understood. But I wanted to have clean, dry, settled hair at least the first time he saw me, and I would hope he kept the first memory alive. I might go swimming after he saw me, while I waited around for people to drive up to the gas pumps in their boats.

The richer they were, the more seldom the made it down from Birmingham to their million-dollar vacation homes on the lake, and the more likely they were to complete dumbasses when it came to docking their boats and finding their gas caps. If I covered for their dumbassedness in front of their families in the boats by giggling and saying things like, "Oh sir, I'm so sorry, I'm supposed to be helping you!" While I helped them, they tipped me beyond belief.

I was just folding as twenty into my back pocket when Mark and Jason came zipping across the water in the boat emblazoned with GRACE'S MARINA down the side, blasting Nickelback from the speakers. They turned hard at the edge of the idle zone. Three foot swells shook the floating dock violently and would have shaken me off into the water if I hadn't held on to the rail. Then the bow of the boat eased against the padding on the dock. Jason must be the one driving. Mark would have driven all the way to the warehouse, closer to where they'd pick up the next boat for delivery.

In fact, as Mark threw me the rope to tie the stern and Jason cut the engine, I could hear them arguing about this. Mark and Jason pretty much argued 24/7. I was used to it. But I would rather not have heard Mark complaining that they were going to walk a whole extra fifty yards and up the stairs just to Jason could say hi to me.

Mark jumped off the boat. His weight rocked the floating dock again as he tied up the bow. He was big, maybe six feet tall, with a deep tan from working all spring at the marina, and a hard, muscled chest and arms from competing with Jason the last five years over who could lift more poundage on the dumbbell in their garage (Mark and Jason were like this). Then, Mark straightened and smiled his beautiful smile at me, and I forgave him for everything.

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Well, what did you think?

Not long enough?

Comment or review what you think!

Remember; give me suggestions or comments, what was good and what was bad?

ALSO, THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT:

I WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE…

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FOR FOLLOWING MY STORY! YOU GUYS ARE MY MOTIVATION AND YOU KEEP ME GOING THANKS SO MUCH!

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(gonna update in a little bit…)

BY THE WAY… HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE!

AND IF YOU'RE WONDERING HOW I HAVE TIME TO UPDATE ON NEW YEARS EVE… IT'S BECAUSE I HAVE NO LIFE…. EXCEPT FOR VOLLEYBALL… :P


	4. Chapter 3

Hello there peoples!

HAPPY 2014!

So, ON WITH THE STORY!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of this, Rick and Jennifer do…

Enjoy!

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Piper's P.O.V (as usual)

"Hey, buddy," he said to me. I got a close up view of his strange light blue eyes and golden skin as he threw his arms around me and kept walking right over to me. I had to throw my arms around him, too to keep from thudding flat on my back on the dock.

"Oh pardon me!" he said, pulling me out from under him and setting me on my feet again. "I didn't even see you there."

"That's quite all right," I managed in the same fake-formal tone. His warm hands still held my waist. This was the first time a boy had ever touched my bare tummy. My happy skin sent shocked messages to my brain that went something like, He's touching me! Are you getting this? He's touching me! Eeeeee! My brain got, all right, and put the rest of my body on high alert. My heart thumped painfully, just like in my dream.

But as I looked into his eyes, I saw he was already gone, glancing up the stairs to the marina. If I didn't know better, I'd say he'd been flirting with me. I knew better though, he treated all girls this way.

He slid out of my grasp. He may have had to shake one hand violently to extricate it from my friendly vise-like grip. "See you later, Junior," he threw over his shoulder at me as he climbed up the stairs to the marina.

When we were kids, he'd started calling my brother Repair boy because he thought the nickname was such a riot. It caught on with the other Grace boys, and Will had told everyone at school. I'm not sure anyone in town knew my brother as Leo. Thankfully everybody in town knew me as Piper. The names Mark made up for me were too long to be practical nicknames: Repair boy junior, Repair boy the younger, Repair boy returns, Repair boy strikes back, Repair boy's buddy, Repair girl.

You see what I'm up against? Obviously he still saw me as my brother's little sister. I sighed, watching him climb the steps, muscles moving underneath the tan skin of his legs. He was immune to the temptation of my exposing pink tank top. But thankfully, I had another trick up my sleeve. Later that afternoon, when we went wakeboarding, I would integrate Stage two: Bikini.

The dock dipped again as Jason jumped form the boat. I turned to greet him. WE did our secret handshake, which we'd been adding to for years: The basic shake (first grade), upside down (second grade), with a twist (fourth grade), high five (fifth grade), low five (seventh grade), pink swear (eighth grade), elbows touching (ninth grade). We'd been known to do the secret handshake when we passed in the halls at school, and on the sidelines during Jason's football games.

Everybody on the girls' tennis team fetched water and bandages for the football team during their games. It wasn't fair. The football team didn't bring us drinks and bandages at tennis tournaments. I never complained, though, because I got to stand on the football field where the action was, which I really wanted. The secret handshake had proven surprisingly hard to do when Jason was in football pads. We'd made it work.

But Jason had gotten together with Reyna a month before. Ever since I'd heard a rumor that she didn't want her boyfriend doing the secret handshake with "that 'ho next door," I'd tried to cool it in public. I mean if I had a boyfriend, I wouldn't have wanted him doing a secret hand shake with anybody but me, especially if he looked like Jason.

Because Jason looked basically like Mark. Up close in daylight you'd never mistake them for each other, especially now that they were older. Their facial features were different. At the distance or in the dark, all bets were off.

Jason's hair was longer than Mark's and always in his eyes, but you couldn't tell this when they were both windblown in the extreme, like now. If you happened to be watching them from your bedroom window as they got into a fight and began to beat the crap out of each other at the edge of their yard where their mom couldn't see them from their house-not that I would ever do such a thing-you could only tell them apart because Mark was more filled out and a little taller, since he was two years older. Also, they walked differently: Mark cruised suavely, while Jason bounced like a ball that got away from you and led you into the street after it.

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Honestly, I'm wayyyyy too lazy to finish this chapter… so because of my laziness I'm ending the chapter here…

ALSO! IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT! I WILL BE DOING A FANFIC BLAST TOMORROW ON THIS STORY…

Yes, it is annoying how I have to wait like 30 min for the story to show up on but still, I will post them all at once and yea… be on the lookout for it…

ANYWAYS… I WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE FOR FOLLOWING MY STORY, ADDING IT TO YOUR FAVEORITES OR COMMENTING… YOU GUYS MAKE MY DAY AND YOU GUYS ARE MY MOTIVATION TO KEEP ON WRITING THIS FANFIC LOVE YOU GUYS!

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